Hi Christian,

Thanks for the reply.

I will re-read your reply a few more times as it is still a little unclear to me. I am sure your instructions are quite clear, it is just me trying to break away from the BDE and TTable mind-set and throw myself into SQL.

I really can't recall where I saw the sample program with the 3 Query for the one Table as I have been hacking at this for the past three weeks trying to make sense of what I have been finding on the internet. I did think it was strange at the time though.

I have only just found this group after being bounced around from other Firebird groups so I feel I am at last getting much more focused information.

> You have to differentiate between the IBO native controls and the
> IBO compatibility components. The compatibility components should
> be used if you want to use components which rely on the Delphi
> TDataset.

Ahhh, OK, I start to see it. In future apps I will start out with native controls. Can you give me an instance of why I might want TDataset compatibility? Would that be for an existing app I am converting over to Firebird? If so, then it will be a non-event as I can keep all of the old BDE-style stuff as is and only use Firebird for new apps.

> If you do not want to have explicit control, you can leave out the
> Transaction component. IBO will then use an internal default
> transaction.

Ahhh, another light-bulb moment. Thanks.

> If the application uses data-aware controls, you will have
> to use TIB_Queries and TIB_Datasources and some of the data-aware
> controls, like TIB_Edit.

Wow, light-bulbs going off all over the place. I am learning more in your one reply than I have in three weeks of trial and error. Thank you.

> IBO has got a steep learning curve, especially when you have not
> dealt with SQL and Delphi database controls before.

The database side of it is well understood, I have been doing that for more years than I can remember, I have just never used SQL before. I have been programming since 1976 and using Turbo Pascal since v 2.1. As each new TP version came out, I transitioned to it with things like BTree-fileretc. With the advent of Delphi 1, I just flowed on with the non SQL approach as I knew and understood it.

I was recently forced to look at alternative database engines when I developed an app for a friend which had nine TMemos (3000+ characters each) in each Record. Because of the TMemo, the update times when changing a TMemo Text, were becoming totally unacceptable as the record count grew. That's when I stumbled on to Firebird and the IBO. I will rewrite his app using Firebird and hopefully the TMemo thing will be a non-issue.

Thanks for your help.

Dave